Plantronics has released a study that reveals a lot about the way professionals use communications in the workplace. And, as it turns out, traditional mediums still rule.

"How We Work: Communication Trends of Business Professionals," looks at the communications habits and preferences of 1,800 employees worldwide. The findings show that for the most part, professionals rely on more traditional forms of communication to drive results. E-mail is critical to the overall success and productivity of 83 percent of respondents, of which 81 percent say the same thing for phone calls. Audio conferences were rated critical for 61 percent, while sending or receiving IM was for 38 percent of respondents. Social media came in last at 19 percent.

The study also showed definite preferences in the ways employees collaborate; if collaboration is more critical to success and productivity, in-person and video-driven meetings are preferred over text-based communication. Despite its popularity, e-mail is not the preferred method of communication for mission-critical decisions, and only 3 percent of respondents prefer it for complex or technical discussions.

"'How We Work' shows that, given the demands of work today, professionals are essentially creating communication tool belts that allow them to pick the right tool at the right time," said Clay Hausmann, vice president of Corporate Marketing at Plantronics in a prepared statement. "Video, voice and text-based communications all have a role, as does social media, and one isn't growing at the expense of another. The pace of innovation around new communication technologies is astounding, and yet it is the end user who ultimately decides which technology will play a key role in their business communication and for what purpose."

The full study can be found on Plantronics' website.

Top 10 Free Collaboration Tools

I travel a lot and so do my partners and employees.I often find myself working very far away from clients and co-worker and we need tools to work just like if we were in the same room.

These are my 10 favorite free (or almost free) collaboration tools.

Skype - http://www.skype.com/
Skype allows you to talk to people all over the world for free. It also offers chat, video chat and you can also share your screen with other people.

BaseCamp - http://basecamphq.com/
If you're looking for a tool to manage your projects, BaseCamp is by far the best option. Create to-do lists, milestones, projects, upload files, assign tasks to people, control the progress of your project and communicate with other team members.

Twiddla - http://www.twiddla.com/
Think of Twiddla as a whiteboard that several people can see at the same time. It's great to explain ideas, draw arrows, call-outs, etc.

Google Docs - http://docs.google.com/
This Google tool allows you to share documents with your team. Just put them in a folder everybody can access and you can all edit the same documents.

Mint - http://www.mint.com/
This is a great money-management tool and it's free.

LogMeIn - https://secure.logmein.com/
Do you need to remotely control a computer? This is a great tool for it. You can use your partner's computer from Seattle if you're in New York. You can leave your computer at home and access it from any other computer in the world.

Google Calendar - https://www.google.com/calendar
Keep all your events and meetings organized with this tool from Google. The best part is that you and your team can share the same calendar so you can all see what everyone else is up to and when they all have some free time to meet.

BlueTie - http://bluetie.com/
This application isn't free, but it's only $5/month, so it's almost free. BlueTie is a great tool to manage emails and keep your contacts organized. You can share email messages and contacts with your team. BlueTie has a Customer Relationship Management (CRM) engine built-in that I really like.

PamFax - http://www.pamfax.biz/
Send and receive faxes for very cheap from your own computer. You can send documents (PDF, DOC, etc.). When you receive a fax, you'll get the pages as email attachments that you can print if you want. Having fax has never been so cheap.

EchoSign - http://www.echosign.com/
Isn't it annoying when you have to print out an agreement, sign it, fax it, have the other person sign it and fax it back to you? There's a better option: EchoSign. This cool tool allows you to sign documents online in just a few seconds.